Book 4: Air
by Summer Rosalie
Summary: Was the Avatar really the last airbender?
1. Chapter 1

A girl stood alone at the Western Air Temple. She had sleek, long black hair that was pulled back into a braid. A light breeze blew a loose strand of hair into her face, and she pushed it behind her ear. She took one last look around, as if waiting for something. Then, deciding that it was not going to come, she tapped her staff on the ground and it opened up into a glider with yellow wings. Just as she was about to kick off the ground, she looked up and saw a figure flying towards the temple. She quickly closed her glider and hid behind a nearby statue, blocking herself from the view of the approaching figure.

A large sky bison landed in the Western Air Temple. Five people jumped off of a saddle on its back. One looked to be about twelve, he was also bald and had a large blue arrow on his head, arms, and feet. An airbender! There was a girl with dark hair and pale blue eyes that looked like she was the same age as the airbender boy, but she was wearing Earth Kingdom clothing. The rest looked like they were fifteen or sixteen years old. There was another boy from the Earth Kingdom. He was tall and muscular with long black hair. The last two were wearing Water Tribe clothing and looked like they were related. The girl had long brown hair that was put in a braid and large blue eyes. Her brother also had blue eyes and brown hair that was pulled back into a ponytail. They walked over to large fountain and sat by it.

"Do you guys remember when we came here during the war?" the Water Tribe girl asked.

"Yeah," the airbender boy laughed, "And this is where Zuko first joined our group."

"And we almost didn't let him," the Water Tribe boy added, "but Aang needed a firebending teacher."

The airbender boy was the Avatar! The girl behind the statue gasped, then slapped her hand over her mouth and stiffened up. But the people sitting by the fountain turned their heads in the direction that the noise had come from.

"Did you hear that?" the Earth Kingdom boy asked, looking around.

"Who's there?" the Water Tribe boy demanded.

"It's one person, they're behind that statue!" the Earth Kingdom girl told the rest of them, pointing to the statue the girl was hiding behind.

Knowing that she had been discovered, the girl sighed, picked up her staff, and slowly stepped out from behind the statue. Avoiding eye contact with anyone else, she looked straight at the airbender and spoke directly to him. "Avatar, it is an honor to finally meet you, my people have been searching for you for many years to-"

"Wait a second!" the Water Tribe boy interrupted, "Who are you? And what do you mean _your people_? Why were you looking for Aang?"

The girl looked at the Water Tribe boy, then back at the Avatar. "My name is Kai Yu," she told him, "I come from a group of air nomads that escaped from the southern temples over a hundred years ago when the Fire Nation attacked. Most of us aren't benders, but we've been looking for you to tell you that some of your people survived."

The Avatar's eyes went wide with disbelief, and he turned to the Earth Kindgom girl. "Toph?"

"She's not lying," she answered. The whole group looked at the Air Nomad girl in disbelief, and she smiled nervously.

The Avatar was the first to speak. "This is amazing! Some Air Nomads have survived after all! How many benders are there?"

Kai Yu looked down. "Just me," she said quietly, her grey eyes suddenly sad. She looked up again and told them, "Well I should leave, my people have to hear about this."

"Wait, before you leave," the Avatar said, "Let me introduce my friends. I'm Aang." He motioned to the Water Tribe girl with his hand, "This is Katara," he motioned towards the Water Tribe boy, "Her brother, Sokka," then the Earth Kingdom boy, "This is Haru," and last, he motioned towards the Earth Kingdom girl, "And Toph." When he was finished, he turned back to Kai Yu. "Are you going to come back here tomorrow?"

She smiled. "Yes, actually, I will."

"Then we'll see you then," Aang replied.

She nodded. "It was nice meeting you all." She opened up her glider and kicked off of the ground, disappearing into the clear, blue sky.


	2. Chapter 2

Kai Yu landed on the edge of the Air Nomad camp and closed her glider. They had been hiding there for over a hundred years. Her grandmother had been living there since she was about thirteen or fourteen years old, and Kai Yu had spent all fifteen years of her life there. She looked around and saw her best friend, Amma, and walked up to her, quickening her pace as she got closer.

"Amma!" she smiled when she reached her, "Great news!"

"What is it?" she asked, curious because she hadn't seen Kai Yu this ecstatic in ages.

"You are not going to believe this," her smile widened.

"Well, what is it?" Amma asked, getting impatient.

Kai Yu waited a second before blurting out, "I found the Avatar!"

"No way!" Amma's impatience switched to disbelief and excitment, "Did you tell your grandmother yet?"

"Well, I jost got here," she answered, "I'll go tell her now." Kai Yu's grandmother, Lin, was kind of like the leader of the small group they were in. She was the oldest member, and the only survivor who had lived through the attack. Kai Yu opened up her grandmothers tent and stepped in, careful not to make a sound in case she was sleeping. "Grandma?" she almost whispered.

"What is it?" she replied.

"I found the Avatar," she smiled. Lin stood up.

"You did? This is wonderful news! I must tell the rest of the people!" Lin stood up and walked out of the tent, Kai Yu following behind her. Lin walked to the middle of the camp. "I have just been given great news," she announced, so that everyone could hear, "My granddaughter has found the Avatar." She turned to Kai Yu and spoke more quietly "Did you tell him?"

She nodded once. "He knows. I'm going to meet up with him tomorrow."

"Invite him to our camp," Lin told her, "I want him to meet us."

Kai Yu nodded again. "Okay, but you should know that there are others with him."

"Any friend of the Avatar's is a friend of ours, invite them too."

She smiled. "Okay."

For the rest of the day, many people came up to Kai Yu and asked her questions, and that night, she could barely sleep. Tomorrow couldn't come fast enough.

**A/N:**_Sorry if some of the parts are confusing, I use my iPod touch to edit my stories because I can never get on a actual computer at home(stupid brother!) so I had to use HTML to write this. I guess I was just more focused on getting the HTML right so that the story would actually show up on the page than I was on actually making the story make sense. ^.^' So anyways, sorry for that and if any parts are confusing, please tell me and I'll try to fix it in the story. Thanks! :)_


	3. Chapter 3

Kai- Yu woke up early the next morning. After trying, and failing to get back to sleep, she carefully stepped over everyone else who was sleeping in the tent that she was in to get out. Once she was out, she walked into the forest surrounding the small camp, and searched for the short, hidden path that she had discovered when she was a little girl, and had been walking along ever since. She found it quickly an followed it until she reached the end, where there was a tall oak tree. She climbed up quickly, she had been climbing trees ever since she was a little girl, and sat down on a sturdy branch, looking out on the forest and watching the sunrise. She stayed up in the tree for about an hour, then carefully climbed down, jumping off whe she was about a foot from the ground. She walked back to the camp and entered the tent that she was sleeping in, walking carefully over to the spot where she slept to retrieve her staff. Once she had gotten it, she left the tent and kept walking until she was just outside the camp. She opened up her staff and kicked off the ground and flew to the air temple.

Shortly after she had left, she arrived at the Western Air Temple. She didn't have to wait long for Aang and his friends to arrive. She watched as he landed his sky bison, and walked up to them when they jumped off of its back.

"Hi!" Aang smiled.

"Hello," Kai- Yu replied, then continued, "My grandmother, Lin, would like to meet you, Avatar Aang. She told me to invite you and your friends back to our camp."

"You can just call me Aang," Aang said, "And there's somebody that I'd like you to meet first."

"Who?" she asked, curious.

"Well, I'm good friends with the new Fire Lord, Zuko," Aang started, "And he feels terrible that his people wiped out the Air Nomads. I'm sure he would be happy to find out that they didn't."

Kai- Yu's eyes widened. "The Fire Lord?" she answered, "Oh, uhm, I should probabaly ask if that's okay... I'm not sure if my people want anyone to know that we're alive."

"Why wouldn't they?"

"Well, we've been hiding for over a hundred years, and the war just ended," she answered, "They're probably still afraid of what might happen if we're discovered. We can go back to my camp and try to reason with my grandmother if she says no."

"Okay," Aang agreed, "Where is it?"

Kai- Yu opened up her glider. "I'll lead you to it, it's actually not that far from here." She waited for the others to get onto the bison, then kicked off the ground and flew to the camp, Aang and his friends following.

They landed just outside of the camp. Kai- Yu closed her glider while the others jumped off of the sky bison.

"Well, it's not much," she said, "But this is our camp."

"Did you have to move a lot?" Katara asked, "To keep hidden?"

"A few times," Kai- Yu answered, "But not far. I've lived in this forest my whole life."

"So, who's in charge here?" Sokka asked, "We need to ask her about introducing you to Fore Lord Zuko."

"My grandmother, Lin, is the only person who was alive during the Fire Nation attack a hundred years ago," she told him, "She's the closest thing to a leader that we have."

"Okay then," he said, "Where is she?"

"It shouldn't be too hard to find her," she started walking towards the camp, motioning for the others to follow.

As soon as she walked into the camp, she spotted Lin, and she began to walk towards her with the others following behind her.

"Grandmother," she said, "I brought the Avatar." Aang stepped forward.

"Avatar, it is an honor to meet you," she said, "We have been searching for you for years, to tell you that you are not alone."

He smiled and nodded his head. "Thank you, but I have a question."

"Ask away."

"I'm good friends with the new Fire Lord, Zuko," Aang began, "And he feels horrible that his people wiped out the airbenders. I would like to introduce him to Kai- Yu so he knows that they didn't."

Lin waited a moment before answering, "I don't know of that's such a good idea..."

Katara stepped forward. "The war is over," she put in, "And even if your people were in danger, if anything, Zuko would try to protect you."

Lin thought for a moment. "Fine, you may go."

"Thank you," Kai- Yu smiled.

They all walked back to where Aang's bison was and just as Kai- Yu was going to open up her glider, Aang told her, "You can ride on Appa with us if you want to." She nodded and smiled, then climbed up onto the saddle on Appa's back and they began flying away from the forest. Kai- Yu watched as the ground got farther and farther away.

"Hey," she heard a voice coming from behind her, "Your name is Kai- Yu, right?"

She turned around to see that it was the earthbender boy who was talking to her. "Yeah... and you're Haru?"

"Yup," he smiled, "So I was wondering, how long have you been going to the Western Air Temple for?"

She thought about this for a moment. "I guess ever since I heard that the war was over, so that would be about two months."

"Really?" Katara came into the conversation, "And you've been going there every day?"

"Yeah pretty much," she shrugged.

"And you were waiting for Aang to show up?" Katara asked.

Kai- Yu shrugged again. "I never really minded, it was kinda nice to get away from the camp at least for a bit."

"But how did you know to find Aang there?" Haru asked.

"I figured that he would visit sometime."

They asked her questions for the rest of the time they were flying to Fire Lord Zuko's palace, and the trip went quickly. Before she knew it, Kai- Yu was standing in a large room, and Zuko was walking over to greet his friends. Almost immediately, he noticed Kai- Yu.

"Who is she?" he asked, "I don't think I remember meeting her."

"That's why we came," Aang told him, "This is Kai- Yu. She comes from a group of air nomads that escaped during the war and have been living in hiding for over a hundred years."

It took Zuko a second to answer. "This is incredible!" Then he looked at Kai- Yu. "I am so sorry for what the Fire Nation has done to your people. I hope that you can forgive us."

"The war is over now," she told him, "And I think we are ready to forgive and forget, and go on with life."

Zuko's smile widened. "Thank you, it is good to know that the airbenders can forgive us."

She nodded and smiled back. The rest of the visit went by quickly, and soon, Kai- Yu was back home, saying goodbye to her new friends.

"Are you going back to the temple tomorrow?" Katara asked.

"I've been going everyday for two months now," she smiled, "I'm not going to stop now."

Katara smiled back. "We'll see you then."

Kai- Yu waved as they flew out of sight, then began to walk towards her tent. She was stopped by Lin.

"Are you going to see your friends tomorrow?" She asked.

"Yeah."

"Then invite them back here," she said, "We are going to have a feast."

She nodded. "Okay, I will."

"Good night," Lin said.

"Good night," Kai- Yu replied before walking away to go to bed.


	4. Chapter 4

Haru waited outside of his village for Aang to come and get him to go to the Western Air temple. He was always the last one getting picked up, and often wondered if they all lived in the same place. Sometimes he had wished that he'd gone with Katara, Sokka, and Aang after they had helped free him from the prison, but he knew that he had to help take back his village, and that Toph was the one who was supposed to teach earthbending to Aang.

Haru didn't have to wait long for Aang, he came just a few minutes after he had left home. He climbed onto Appa's saddle and said hello to everyone, and then they left to go meet Kai- Yu.

She was waiting for them when they had arrived. Haru jumped off of Appa and walked ver to her with his friends.

"So, where to today?" Aang asked.

"My grandmother wanted me to invite you guys back to our camp," she answered, "She's having a feast."

"Really?" Aang asked.

"Yeah, it's probably not going to be until nighttime," she said, "But maybe you could come and meet some of the people until then. I'm sure they would love that."

"Okay, we can do that," Aang replied.

"Do you remember where it is?" She asked him.

He nodded, then jumped onto Appa. "Yeah, I remember."

Haru climbed onto Appa's saddle, and offered his hand to help Kai- Yu up. She smiled and shook her head, then climbed up on her own. "I guess airbenders can jump higher than the rest of us," he laughed.

She looked away. "I don't use my bending," she said quietly, "I'm just a really good climber."

He raised his eyebrow in confusion. "Why don't you use your bending?"

"She probably doesn't have a teacher," Katara put in, "I was the only waterbender in my village, and I never used my bending much until I met Aang."

"Yeah, that's it," Kai- Yu said, still looking away. Haru could tell that she was lying, but he could also tell that she didn't want to talk about it, so he didn't ask her about it.

The rest of the trip was silent, except for a few questions and short answers. When they landed just outside of the camp, they all jumped off of Appa's back. Haru noticed that Kai- Yu was still very light on her feet, even though she wasn't using bending to soften her landing.

Almost as soon as they walked into the camp, a girl with black hair that went just below her shoulders and pale blue eyes walked up to Kai- Yu. "Hey," the girl greeted her.

"Hi," Kai- Yu said then turned to them. "This is my best friend, Amma. Amma, this is Aang, Haru, Katara, Sokka, and Toph. Aang is-"

"The Avatar," Amma finished for her, then smiled, "The arrows gave it away."

"I was just wondering," Haru came into the conversation, stepping forward to stand next to Kai- Yu, "Why doesn't anyone here have arrows?"

"Only airbenders have arrows," Amma answered, "And since we had to stay hidden, we stopped giving them tattoos, in case somebody were to come across them while they were out in the forest."

Haru nodded then glanced at Kai- Yu, who was looking in Amma's direction, but seemed to be looking at something that was farther away. "Hey," he whispered, "You okay?"

She turned her head to look at him, confused. Haru guessed that she hadn't noticed that he had been standing next to her. "Huh? Oh, yeah I'm fine," she whispered back, "Just spaced out for a second."

He nodded.

Kai- Yu looked at Amma. "Can you show them around?" she asked, "I have to go see how my grandmother is doing..."

Amma nodded then turned to face the rest of the group as Kai- Yu ran off and went into a small tent. "Well there's really not that much to see here, or that many people to meet," Amma started, then began to point to some of the tents, "These tents are where the small children sleep, boys in that one, boys in that one," then, she pointed to two larger tents, "The teenagers are in these ones, boys in that one, girls in that one," she pointed to two other large tents, "The men sleep in that one and the women sleep in that one," last, she pointed to the small tent that Kai- Yu had run into, "That's where Lin sleeps." Continuing, she pointed to a fire pit, with long logs all around it. "That's where we eat and cook food. There's a small spring east of the camp where we wash and clean our clothes, and there's a stream to the west where we get our water. And that's pretty much it."

Just as Amma finished talking, Kai- Yu emerged from the tent and walked over to them. "Hey," she said to Amma, "So did you finish showing them around?"

When Amma nodded, Kai- Yu continued, "Great," then she turned to everyone else, "I have to go help get some stuff ready for tonight, so just go and meet some of the people."

"Okay," Aang said. Everyone else nodded.

"I'll see you guys tonight," Kai- Yu told them then started to walk away. Haru stood there for a moment, then started to follow her.

"Hey, are you going to need any help?" he asked, walking besides her.

She thought about this for a moment before answering. "Sure, you can handle the meat, I don't like touching it."

"You're a vegetarian?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"Oh," he said, trying to keep the conversation going, "Aang is too."

"That's nice."

"Yeah," he said, realizing that she wasn't in the mood to talk. He could tell from the way she was talking that her mind was in other places. They spent the whole time getting the food ready in silence, and eventually the sky got darker and it was time for the feast.

"I'm going to go check on my grandmother again before we start," she told him. He watched her as she ran off into Lin's tent, then slowly stood up to go look for his friends.


	5. Chapter 5

"So, how did it go for you guys?" Haru asked when he had found his friends.

"Pretty good," Katara answered, "How did helping to prepare the food go?"

He shrugged. "It was alright. Did you know that Kai- Yu is a vegetarian?"

"Really?" Aang asked.

Haru nodded, then glanced at Lin's tent just as Kai- Yu emerged. He watched as she walked over to the fire pit, and called everyone over to eat. When they went to sit down, Haru sat on next to Kai- Yu, and his friends came and sat next to him. Amma sat next to her on the other side. Once everyone was seated, Kai- Yu stood up again and began speaking loud enough so that everyone could hear, "As most of you know, my grandmother, Lin, has been sick all day, and could not come to this feast, so she asked me to say a few words. For a hundred years our people have been hiding from the Fire Nation, and the war. It hasn't been easy, many times, we've had to move to avoid being discovered, or go out in disguise to get news on the war, hoping that one day, we would be able to come out of hiding. But I think that all of us can agree that one of the hardest things we've had to do is live with the knowledge that, somewhere in the world, the Avatar thought that he was the only airbender left, that he was alone. After we had gotten news that the war had ended, I was sent out to find the Avatar. I didn't think that I could do it, but I had to try. So every day for two months, I went to the Western Air Temple, hoping that one day he would show up. And the other day, he did, and now he knows that he isn't alone." Before sitting back down, she looked at Aang. "Would you like to say something?" she whispered.

Aang smiled and shook his head. Kai- Yu nodded, then sat down, and the feast began. Haru decided to try and start another conversation, but couldn't think of anything to say. He ate in silence, and when everyone was done eating, he walked over to his friends, who were standing by Appa.

"Haru, we were just talking about whether or not to stay longer," Katara said when he walked up to them, "What do you think?"

He thought for a second. "I think we should."

"That decides it then," Aang said, "We're going to stay."

Just then, Kai- Yu walked over to them and handed Aang a plank of wood with some food on it. "Could you take this to Lin? I have to finish cleaning up. Besides, she wanted to see you."

"Sure." Aang took the plate and walked away. Without saying a word to anyone else, she walked away and began helping everyone clean up.

"Hey, you, Earth Kingdom boy!" Haru heard, then turned around to see that it was Amma, and that she was motioning for her to come over.

He walked over to her. "Yes?"

"You like Kai- Yu," she said bluntly.

He raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?" he half- laughed.

"Look," she said, "Maybe _you_ don't even know it yet, but I can tell."

"Oh really?" he asked, "And exactly _how_ can you tell?"

"Wherever she goes, you go too," she began, "And even when you can tell she doesn't want to talk, you try anyways. And then you keep trying. And when we were eating, you wanted to talk to her, but you couldn't think of anything to say."

He blinked. "And just how, exactly, did you figure that out?"

"That much was obvious," he shrugged, "You kept glancing at her from the corner of your eye, and then every time you would start to turn towards her, you would stop then face forward again. I know you're not going to believe me now, but please, just think about it."

He nodded. "Fine." Then he noticed that Kai- Yu had finished cleaning up and putting the fire out and was walking into the forest. "Hey, where's she going?"

"I don't know," she answered, "Follow her and find out."

He gave her a quick glare before rushing off to follow her, trying to catch up. He had almost lost her several times, he was barely able to see her until they had walked onto a narrow path that was hidden by bushes, trees and vines. Once they had gotten onto the path, he was able to catch up to her.

"Hey," he panted, walking right behind her because the path was too narrow for him to walk beside her, "Where are you going?"

She ignored him and walked quicker. He sped up his pace too, still managing to keep up with her. That's when he saw the tear run down her cheek, gleaming in the moonlight.

"Are you okay?" he asked, and she sped up her pace again. He caught up to her quickly and placed and hand on her shoulder, stopping her in her tracks. Her turned her around. "What's wrong?" he asked, his concern obvious in his voice.

She looked up at him, tears streaming down her face. She opened her mouth to speak, but couldn't. She shook her head and looked at the ground.

Not knowing what to say, Haru pulled her into a hug. He felt her wrap her arms around him, and bury her face in his shirt. He searched his brain for something that might have happened earlier that could have made her upset, and then he remembered how she had begun her speech earlier that night.

"Are you worried about your grandmother?" he asked. She sobbed loudly, and he took that as a 'yes'. "She's going to be fine," he reassured her, "She'll be better soon."

Kai-Yu pulled away from the hug, and wiped her eyes on her arm before looking back up at him. "She's 115 years old, Haru," she said, her voice still shaky even though there were no longer any tears in her eyes, "She might not. If it gets any worse… I just don't know if she'll make it."

"She'll be just fine," he said soothingly, then hugged her when she started to cry again, "Everything will be okay."

**A/N:**_The first thing I want to say is this: Thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed my story :). You guys are awesome! Secondly, you guys are probably wondering about the thing with Amma. Or maybe not, but either way, I'm going to explain it. I don't think that I did a very good job of getting this across in my writing, but Amma kind if has a ESP, sort of? I don't know, but the best way I can think of is to compare her with Simon from Lord of the Flies. And if you haven't read Lord of the Flies, don't. NOT a good book, at least in my opinion it wasn't. Anyways, she knows how people work and she's smart and also kind of physcic(I probably spelled that wrong...) So I guess she's kind of a combination of Ralph, Piggy, and Simon. Wow, I did a really terrible job of explaining that and probably just confused you even more, and if you weren't confused, I probably just confused you. Jeez, I never knew I was so good at confusing people. Anyways, tell me if I need to fix anything in the story. And also, please tell me how to spell physcic, because I'm pretty sure I spelled that wrong... ANYWAYS... thanks for reading and reviewing! Have a nice day! :)_


	6. Chapter 6

She stood there in his arms for a few minutes. She had already stopped crying, but didn't want to pull away. Not yet. She stayed there for another minute or so, then realized that she had to go back before people would start wondering where she was. Haru had to go back, too. His friends might start to worry about him. She reluctantly pulled away from him and said quietly, "We should go."

He nodded. "Yeah, I guess. They might come looking for us if we stay much longer."

They began to walk back, following the trail. It was too narrow for him to walk next to her, so Haru had to walk behind her. Kai-Yu walked slower than she normally would, and hoped that he wouldn't notice. Eventually, the trail ended and, even though he could walk beside her now, he stayed behind her. She felt a firm hand grab her by the arm, and she stopped in her tracks and turned around to face Haru.

"Keep going," he said, "It's just that I can barely see you, and I don't know my way back."

She nodded then continued walking, fighting the heat that was rising to her cheeks. She was glad that the darkness hid her blush. They walked the rest of the way in silence, his hand on her arm the whole time. When they walked back into the camp, Haru let go of her arm immediately. Aang, Katara, and Sokka came running up to them.

"Where were you guys?" Katara's whisper was harsh and angry, "We were worried sick!"

"Sorry," Haru whispered back, "I asked Kai- Yu if we could go for a walk in the forest, we didn't know that we'd be back so late."

"Well we have to go," Katara whispered, her voice softening, "We'll see you tomorrow, Kai- Yu?"

She nodded, then, remembering that they couldn't see her, whispered, "Yeah."

She turned around to walk away when she heard Haru whisper, "See you tomorrow."

She stopped walking, and, without turning around, whispered, "Yeah. See ya." She began to walk away again, but turned around to watch as Appa flew off. When he was out of sight, Kai- Yu turned around again and walked into her tent.


	7. Chapter 7

"So, where to?" Aang asked the next morning when Kai- Yu had met up with them at the air temple.

Kai-Yu thought about this for a moment, then answered, "I want to see your villages."

Aang nodded, and was about to answer when Kai- Yu interrupted him, "But I probably shouldn't be with you guys for too long, I have to take care of my grandmother."

Aang thought for a second, then replied, "We could take you to Haru's village, and he can show you around there, while we go back and care for your grandmother while you're there. That way you won't have to rush."

Her eyes widened. "You guys would really do that for me?"

Aang smiled and nodded. "What are friends for?"

Kai- Yu smiled back. "Thank you."

"We should probably get going soon," Sokka cut in, "We want Haru to have as much time as possible to show Kai- Yu around his village."

Aang nodded in agreement, then jumped up onto Appa, the others following him.

As Kai- Yu was about to climb onto Appa's saddle, she noticed that Haru had offered his hand to help her up. Unlike the last time he had done this, she accepepted his hand and allowed him to pull her up next to him.

He leaned over slightly so that his face was close to her ear. "How is she?" he asked quietly, and she was sure that no one else had heard him.

She was unsure why a sudden wave of heat had rushed to her cheeks, but she fought it back before answering his question just as quietly as he had asked it. "She's not any better, but she also not any worse."

He nodded, then moved his face away from hers. She felt the heat in her cheeks fade away as he did. She felt an unexplained sense of relief when Katara spoke.

"I have a question," she began, "I mean, if you don't mind me asking."

She shrugged. "Ask away."

Katara paused for a moment, then asked her question. "How did the Air Nomads escape from the Fire Nation? Did they know that they were coming?"

Kai- Yu shook her head. "The Air Nomads traveled from temple to temple. Nobody has lived in the same one their whole lives. The Fire Nation attacked as they were traveling from the Eastern Air Temple."

Katara nodded. "Aang was from the Eastern Air Temple, I think," she added.

"I was," Aang confirmed, not turning back to face them.

"Okay, now I have a question for you," Kai- Yu told Katara, "Do you guys all live close together? I mean, except for you and Sokka, and Haru and Toph, you're all from different nations."

"Aang, Sokka, Toph, and I all live on Kiyoshi Island," Katara answered, "Well, Toph hasn't been coming along with us lately, because she hates flying..."

"Yeah, I was wondering why she hasn't been with you guys lately."

"Well, you'll get to see her again when we take you back to Kiyoshi," Katara told her. Not too long after, Aang had landed Appa outside of a small Earth Kingdom village.

Kai- Yu said her goodybyes to Katara, Aang, and Sokka, then jumped off of Appa's saddle. She watched them until they had flown out of sight.

_**A/N:**I'm really sorry that I took so long to get this out, but I was pretty busy with my summer reading and practicing for band and whatnot. I also had some writer's block, which is why this chapter was written really badly. I'm sorry for that too, and I promise I'll try to make the next one better and get it out sooner. Thanks for reading my story and I hope it hasn't been too bad so far! :)_


	8. Chapter 8

"So, where to first?" Haru asked Kai- Yu, after watching his friends fly off.

She shrugged. "I don't know. It's your village, you choose."

He sighed, having no idea where to start. "Well my parents have been wanting to meet you," it was the only place that he could think to take her, "They don't really believe that there's another airbender besides Aang."

She nodded. "Okay," she said, sounding tired. Haru noticed that she had dark lines under her eyes, but didn't want to ask her about them. He assumed that she had been up late caring for Lin.

When he looked at her, she was looking at him expectantly, and he realized that she was waiting for him to answer or to lead her to his house. "Oh, uhm, I don't live very far from here, follow me."

They got to his house in a few minutes. They walked inside, and Kai- Yu shut the door carefully. "Mom? Dad?" Haru called. A few seconds later, a man who look much like Haru, but older, walked over to them.

"Who's this?" he asked, gesturing to Kai- Yu.

"Dad, this is Kai- Yu," he answered, then turned to Kai- Yu, "Kai- Yu, this is my father."

Kai- Yu smiled shyly, and nodded once, saying a quiet "Hello."

"Kai- Yu is the airbender girl that I told you about," Haru said to his father.

Haru's father's eyes went wide. "I don't believe it," his voice was shocked, "It's true."

"Well I'm going to go show her the rest of the village," Haru said.

"It was very nice to meet you, Kai- Yu," his father said.

Kai- Yu nodded. "You too," she said quietly, then she and Haru left.

"So I'm guessing you want me to choose where we're going next, too," Haru smiled at Kai- Yu.

She smiled back. "Like I said before, it's your village."

He nodded. "Well, first I'm going to show you the market, then the tea shop, and then we could spend the rest of the day walking in the woods."

"Sounds good."

The market was about five minutes away from Haru's house. They took their time walking through there, then began to walk to the tea shop, which was another five minutes away. They ate lunch there, then walked back to Haru's house, so that they could walk through the woods behind his fields.

"I know these woods by heart," he told her, "And there are two places that I think you'd want to see, but they're pretty far apart, so we're going to be spending a lot of time here."

She shrugged. "That's fine with me, I love spending time in the woods!"

"Me too! It's just so peaceful!"

She nodded in agreement. "And nobody ever follows you."

He smiled. "I wouldn't say people _never_ follow you, I mean, you're following me right now."

She laughed. "Yeah, but that doesn't count," even though she wasn't looking at him, Haru could hear the smile in her voice, "I'm supposed to follow you. You're giving me a tour."

"So you _admit_ you were following me!"

"Oh, shut up!" she pushed him playfully, laughing. They talked animatedly until they reached the first thing that Haru was going to show her. He stopped walking, causing Kai- Yu, who was walking right behind him, to bump into him. "What is it?" she asked.

"This is the first thing I wanted to show you," he pointed to a very large tree in the center of a clearing, "This is the tallest tree in the forest."

"Wow," she said, then smiled at him, "I bet I could climb higher than you!"

He laughed. "You probably could. I'm terrible at climbing trees."

"I'm great at it," she told him, "I've lived in a forest my whole life, so I've been climbing trees since I was a little girl."

"You'd think that I'd be pretty good at climbing, too," he said, "You know, because I've lived next to a forest my whole life, but I'm not."

"Yeah, none of the other nomads are really good at it either, I'm the only one."

Haru nodded, then changed the subject, "Let's get going, I want to show you something else."

They walked through the forest slowly. Unlike the forest that Kai- Yu lived in, there were no paths, so they had to walk carefully to make sure they didn't trip over anything. It was also beginning to get dark, which caused them to have to walk even more carefully. Eventually, they came to a clearing with a small stream running through it. The water seemed to twinkle, it was illuminated by the moon and the stars in the sky. Up above, there was an opening in the trees so that they could see the sky. It was a very clear night, without a cloud in the sky. The stars and the full moon shone bright against the dark navy blue night sky. A slight breeze blew across them, causing the long grass to ruffle.

Kai- Yu gasped. "It's amazing!"

"This was actually closer to where we came into the forest," he took a breath, then continued, "But I wanted to show it to you when it was dark out. In my opinion, it looks prettier at night."

"It's amazing," she repeated, and Haru could tell that she was speechless. He earthbended a small bench- like thing that they could sit on. He walked over and sat down on, Kai- Yu following him. They sat in silence for a while, the only noise was the crickets chirping, but it wasn't an awkward silence. It was actually kind of nice. Peaceful.

"Hey, Haru?" Kai- Yu was talking so quietly, she was almost whispering.

"Yeah?" he answered, just as quiet.

"You know that one time, when you asked why I never used my bending, and I told you it was because I was the only airbender in the camp?"

"Uh- huh."

She paused before speaking. "Well I lied."

He nodded once. "I know."

She began speaking quickly, "I'm really sorry, it's just that I didn't want to talk about it and-"

"It's okay," he said soothingly, then paused a second before continuing, "Do you think you could talk about it now?"

She stared out into space. For a second, he thought she was going to say no, but then she began to tell her story, "I wasn't always the only airbender in the camp. My parents were airbenders, and my little brother probably was, too. My parents used to take us out into this one clearing in the forest and teach me airbending moves when my brother was only a baby. My father was the one who taught me how to climb trees. Anyways, when I was little we had to go through one really harsh winter. My mom got really sick, and my dad had to go out in disguise with a few of the other men to see if they could get any news on the war. Everyone came back except for my father, they said that he had dissapeared, and that they didn't know what had happened to him. Not long after that, my mother died, and my little brother got really sick. He didn't last long after that, he was really young. My grandmother is the only family I have left."

"And that's why you're so worried about her," Haru said, not really meaning to say it out loud.

Kai- Yu nodded, then rested her head on his shoulder, taking in a short, sharp breath. He could tell that she was trying really hard not to cry. He wrapped an arm around her, and they sat there for a while, until he heard her breathing get steady again.

"I think we should go to the front of the village to see if Aang, Katara and Sokka came to get you," he said gently, his voice quiet.

Kai- Yu nodded, then stood up.

He held out his arm. "Here, grab my arm. It's dark out and you don't know your way through here."

She nodded, then grabbed his arm and carefully follwed right behind him as they began walking. In a few minutes, they were out of the forest, and not long after that, they were at the front of the village where Aang, Sokka, and Katara were waiting for them.

"What took you guys so long?" Sokka asked, his impatience obvious in his voice, "We've been waiting here for an hour!"

"Sorry," Haru said.

"Do you want to see Kiyoshi tomorrow?" Aang asked Kai- Yu.

"Yeah, but can we meet outside of my camp tomorrow?"

"Yeah, we can do that," he answered, then asked, "Do you want us to fly you home?"

She shook her head. "Nah, I can get home on my own."

Aang nodded. "Okay." He, Katara, and Sokka got onto Appa and flew away.

Haru and Kai- Yu stood there for a moment, watching them leave, then Kai- Yu turned to him. "Well, see you tomorrow," she said, then opened her glider, kicked off of the ground, and flew away.

"Yeah, see you," he mumbled, even though she had already left. He turned around and walked home, tired after a long day.


	9. Chapter 9

Kai- Yu woke up and waited outside for her friends to come take her to Kiyoshi. She didn't have to wait for long, and she realized that she had slept later than she nomally did. Kai- Yu noticed almost immediately that Haru wasn't with Aang, Katara, and Sokka.

"Hey," she greeted them. "Where's Haru?"

"He was still sleeping when we came to get him," Aang answered, "We didn't want to wake him up, he seemed really tired."

Kai- Yu nodded, suddenly feeling an unexplained sense of disappointment. "Oh."

Aang nodded. "Well, we should probably get going, we want to b able to show you as much of the island as possible."

Kai- Yu got onto Appa with the rest of her friends, an they flew away.

"Is Lin going to be okay while you're gone?" Katara asked her, "Is somebody taking care of her?"

Kai- Yu nodded. "Yeah, Amma's going to care for her while I'm away."

"Did you say that she was alive when the Fire Nation attacked your people?"

"Yeah."

"What Air temple was she from?" Katara asked. "Aang says that she seems familiar," she added when Kai- Yu gave her a questioning look.

"She was from the Southern Air Temple," she answered, "And that was the one she was traveling from when they were attacked."

Katara nodded, thinking. Nobody said anyhting else for the rest of the trip, which was a bit longer than the others.

When they finally arrived at Kiyoshi Island, Aang landed Appa on a beach. Kai- Yu looked out at the clear, sparkling water as Aang began to tell her that when they first came to island, they landed on this beach. As they walked through the village, Aang told her that the island was made for Avatar Kiyoshi, Aang in a past life. He told a story about the first time they came to Kiyoshi. They were treated like royalty, and stayed at the island for a while. Katara tried to convince Aang that they had to leave soon, because it was dangerous for him to be in one place for too long. Meanwhile, Sokka had met a warrior girl named Suki, and was being trained by her. Zuko had found them there, and almost burned down the village trying to get to Aang. Before he left, save the village by using the Unagi to put out the fire before the village burned down. While she was at Kiyoshi, Kai- Yu met Suki, the girl from the story, and also Sokka's girlfriend. She also met Aang's earthbending teacher, Toph, who she had learned was blind, but saw by feeling vibrations in her feet.

By the time They had finished showing Kai- Yu the village, it was beginning to get dark outside. Aang, Katara, and Sokka flew Kai- Yu home, said their goodbyes, then flew back home.

_**A/N:** First of all, I would like to say that I am really sorry this chapter was so terrible, I had some major writer's block. I'll try to make chapter 10 better. And speaking of chapter 10, I'm going to try to get that out by Sunday, but any chapters after that might take a while because I am starting band camp next week, and then school is starting not long after that is over(Freshman year! I'm so excited!). So I'm going to apologize in advance for the delay on future chapters. Thank you all for reading!_


	10. Chapter 10

As soon as Kai- Yu got back to her camp, she went to go check on her grandmother. When she saw that Lin was sleeping peacefully, she hurried out of the camp and took off on her glider. There was somewhere else she wanted to be, someone else she had to see.

Her trip wasn't very long. When she arrived at the Earth Kingdom village, she didn't land right away. Instead, she flew over the forest, scanning the treetops for any small gap. After a few minutes, she found what she was looking for, and swooped down to land in th clearing.

It was exactly how she had remembered it. She could look up through the gap in the trees and see the stars and the moon. The small, bubbling stream was illuminated by the moonlight. She watched the grass ripple around her as a slight breeze gently blew across the clearing. She brushed her hair from her face and went to sit down on a rock that stuck out of the ground. Even though it had been earthbended there, it didn't seem out of place or unnatural. Anyone would've thought that it had been there all along.

She had only been sitting there for a few minutes when she heard a familiar voice softly say from behind her, "Kai- Yu?"

She turned around to look at him, surprised. She didn't think he would actually come here. She moved over on the rock and, with a slight nod of her head, motioned for him to come over. She didn't say anything until he was sitting beside her. "Yeah, you weren't with the rest of them today, and, I don't know why, but I just thought that you would be here. Sorry, I know it sounds kind of stupid..."

Haru interrupted her, "Well, you were right. Sorry about not coming with you guys today, I would've but..."

"You were really tired," this time, she interrupted him, not looking up at him, "Aang told me, you were sleeping."

"I would've woken up, but my parents sent them away," he explained.

She nodded, and there was a long silence before Haru asked, "How's your grandmother?"

She looked up at him, suddenly feeling extremely guilty. She should've asked Amma how Lin was doing! "I... I don't know. When I got back home she was asleep, and I just came straight here..."

She didn't finish. Instead, Kai- Yu looked away, trying to fight back the tears that were welling up in her eyes. She suddenly felt something warm and firm on her shoulder, and remembered that night back at her home, the day her grandmother became ill. She remembered how Haru had gone into the woods after her when she walked away. Without thinking or hesitating, she leaned in to him and let him wrap his arms around her, pulling her close. She buried her face in her hands and let the tears escape from her eyes.

When she had finished crying, Kai- Yu pulled away. She rubbed her eyes before saying, "I'm really sorry, I normally don't cry this much."

"It's fine," he shrugged, and smiled understandingly, "You need to let your emotions out. It's not good to keep them all bottled up."

She smiled back at him, "I know, I just don't mean to let them all out on you."

He put his hand on top of hers, "I don't mind."

She nodded, then suddenly stood up. "I should probably go," she said quickly, looking away, "The people back home might get worried if I get back too late."

He nodded, then held out his arms. She stepped into them without hesitation. They stood there for a few moments, then both pulled away. She turned around and began to walk away. But suddenly, feeling as if she had lost control of her body, Kai- Yu turned back around, dropping her staff, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him. He was stiff at first, shocked, but then she felt him relax and wrap his arms around her, and she relaxed, too.

It only lasted for a moment. Kai- Yu regained control of her limbs and, without a word, turned around, picked up her staff, and took off. Hermind was racing the whole time she was flying home, and she couldn't seem to fight the heat that was rising up to her cheeks.

It was very late by the time she arrived back home. She tiptoed into her tent, hoping that no one had noticed that she was gone. She laid down to sleep, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't seem to be able to.

_**A/N:**As I said in chapter 9, any chapters after this one might take a while to get out, because of band camp and school and such. So please don't get mad. Thanks for reading, I hope you've enjoyed my(badly written) story!_


	11. Chapter 11

Haru walked home in a daze, still not completely sure what had happened. He was even more confused about how he felt about it, and how he felt about Kai- was something new, something completely different from anything else. He had liked girls before he met Kai- Yu. So why should she be any different. And when she kissed him, there was this fluttering feeling in his stomach that he couldn't recall feeling before. He never really felt his feet touch the ground as he was walking home, so it was a good thing that he practically knew this forest by heart. When he got home, he snuck back into his room, and laid down in his bed, surrounded by darkness, and hearing nothing but his own thoughts.

_I don't know what's happening,_ Haru thought, _but I just know that it her fault!_ Still, he couldn't help but wish that they both could've stayed there longer, and that this night could have lasted longer than it did. Looking back on it,everything seemed to have happened all at once, that was the case with anything in life, Haru had learned.

Then, it came to him. A thought that he tried to push away as soon as it came into his head, but he couldn't get rid of it, no matter how hard he tried. _You love her!_ he thought. He shook his head as another attempt to get rid of the thought. That was impossible! He had just met her less than a week ago! And what about Amma? How could he have known that he felt like this? It still amazed him that she had figured it out before he did himself. Haru's thoughts went back and forth from replaying the events of the night, and just Kai- Yu and the rest of the airbenders in general, until he drifted into sleep.

Haru woke up the next morning when he heard Appa landing just outside of his house. Confused, he ran outside to meet Aang, Katara, and Sokka.

"Hey guys," he said, still confused, then he noticed that they looked upset, "Is everything okay?"

"A messenger hawk from Zuko brought this to Aang this morning," Katara told him , then handed him a rolled up sheet of paper. Haru unrolled it and read the short message that was on it.

_Aang,_

_I'm afraid that I have some very disturbing news. I'm sure you probably already knew this, but there are still people in the Fire Nation who still support Ozai. Somehow, they discovered that there are still Air Nomads alive, and I have heard rumors that they have been trying to find them. I am confident that these rumors aren't true, but I wanted to warn you to be careful, and remind you that if there is any danger, that I will do everything in my power to help protect the Air Nomads._

_~Zuko_

Haru rolled the paper back up and handed it back to Katara, speechless.

"We should warn them," Sokka broke the silence, "Or tell Kai- Yu, or Lin at least."

"I don't know," Haru finally was able to bring himself to speak, "Lin is sick, and I don't know if she would be up to hearing this kind of thing, and Kai- Yu seems really upset about Lin being sick."

"We can't just not tell them, though," Sokka argued, "They deserve to know."

Katara interrupted the argument, "I think Haru is right. Both Lin and Kai- Yu probably aren't up to hearing anything like this right now."

Aang stepped up next to Katara. "Katara and Haru are right. But we should keep our eyes peeled, and look out for anything unusual, and only tell them if we're sure they're in danger. They'res no need to cause a panic over nothing."

Katara looked apologetically at Sokka. "Sorry Sokka, looks like you're outnumbered."

"Of course Aang would be on Katara's side," Sokka grumbled under his breath.

"So, should we go visit Kai- Yu?" Haru asked, "You know, to make sure she and Lin are okay?"

"That sounds like a good plan," Aang agreed, then jumped on to Appa. The others followed, and they took off.

**_A/N:_**_ I am soo sorry this took so long to write! I've just had a lot going on lately and I never have time to write anymore, and I'm pretty sure most of us know how that is ^-^ Anyways, I hope you like it, and please review this and give me your feedback! Thanks! :)_


	12. Chapter 12

Kai- Yu was just waking up and getting out of her tent when she saw Appa landing outside of their camp. She ran up to meet Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Haru. She couldn't help but smile a little when she saw Haru, and she suddenly got butterflies in her stomach. A little embarassed, she forced herself to look away from him, and talk to Aang instead.

"Hey," she greeted them, "I didn't know you guys were coming, is everything okay?"

"Yeah,"Aang nodded, "We just wanted to see how you guys were doing?"

"How is Lin," Haru asked gently.

Kai- Yu looked back at him. "I was actually just about to go check. She's probably still asleep right now, so we'll probably going to have to come back later, but we'll at least be able to see if her fever has gone up or not." She motioned for them to follow her, then walked toward her grandmother's tent. She peeked inside, and saw that Lin was still sleeping.

"You guys should probably wait out here," she told them quietly, "She's still sleeping, and I don't want to wake her up right now by having too many people in her tent. This will only take a bit." She went back into the tent, carefully trying to be a quiet as possible. She lightly put her hand on Lin's forehead, and sighed. Her fever had gone up over the night. She put a nearby rag in a bowl of water that was right next to her, and put it on her forehead. Kai- Yu knew that it wouldn't help much, but it was better than nothing. She carefully got back up and walked back out of the tent.

"How is she?" Katara asked.

"She's doing about the same as she has been," Kai- Yu lied. She wasn't sure why she had done it, but it was too late to take it back now.

"I guess it could be worse," Aang shrugged, joining in on the conversation.

Kai- Yu nodded. "Yeah," she said absentmindedly. She glanced over at Haru, who gave her a small smile, then they both looked away. _Why is he being so quiet? Did I do something wrong?_ she wondered. _This is so awkward!_ she thought.

"So, while we're here, is there anything that you guys need help with?" Aang asked.

Kai- Yu thought about this for a moment, then answered, "No, nothing that I can think of."

Aang nodded. "Then we should probably get going. I hope Lin feels better soon."

Kai- Yu nodded and gave a small smile. "I'll be sure to tell her you said that."

Aang smiled back."Alright, thanks."

He turned around to leave, and the others began to follow. Haru was the last one, and he seemed a little hesitant. Before walking away, he turned back to look at Kai- Yu. He paused for a moment, then turned around and whispered, "Meet me in our place in about an hour," then turned around and left with Aang, Katara, and Sokka. She was blushing as she watched Appa fly off with her friends on his back.

Relief washed over Kai- Yu. At least she knew that she hadn't _completely_ messed things up with Haru. Still, she couldn't decide whether she was nervous or excited to meet him later. She decided to try to get her mind off of it. She had stuff to do, anyways. Just then, she saw Amma emerge from a tent.

"Hey Amma!" she called, "Do you want to come feed the bison with me?"

Amma rubbed her eyes, then nodded and walked over to Kai- Yu. They headed out of camp, picking up a large sack on their way out.

"So, were the Avatar and his friends just here?" Amma asked casually.

"Yeah," Kai- Yu replied, looking forward, "How did you know?"

"I was awake, I heard them land outside the camp."

"You didn't come out to say hello or something?" Kai- Yu looked at Amma, but almost tripped over a root, so she looked forward again.

Amma shook her head. "Nah. What did they want, anyways?"

"They just wanted to see how Lin was doing."

Amma paused for a second, then asked, "How is she?"

Kai- Yu sighed, then answered, "Her fever went up again." She looked down, then almost tripped again, on a rock this time.

"That looks kind of heavy, do you want me to carry that for you?" Amma offered.

"No, I'm fine," Kai-Yu declined, "We're almost there, anyways."

They walked into a small clearing, with a large sky bison in the middle of it. His two front legs were folded around his head, and he appeared to be sleeping, but he looked up when he heard Kai- Yu and Amma.

Kai- Yu walked over to him, the sack over her shoulder. When she was standing next to his head, she set the sack down and pulled out a head of lettuce. She let him eat it out of her hand, and she stroked his large nose. "There you go, Jinju," she cooed. She felt bad sometimes, because they could never fly him, a flying bison would just stand out too much, and they had to keep the fact that they were alive a secret. She just wished that they didn't have to keep him in that little clearing all the time. _That must get pretty lonely, _Kai- Yu thought. Maybe now that the war was over, they would be able to fly him. As Kai- Yu was feeding Jinju, she looked over and noticed that Amma was still keeping a distance from them. _That's weird,_ she thought, _Amma normally loves feeding Jinju. Now that I think about it, she's been kind of quiet lately... I wonder if something is wrong..._

"Hey, Amma," Kai- Yu called, "You okay? You normally love doing this!"

Amma nodded. "Yeah, sorry," she said absentmindedly, then walked over to join Kai- Yu.

She didn't say anything the rest of the time. Several long, silent minutes later, they ran out of food. Kai- Yu picked up the sack, then patted Jinju's cheek. "See ya later," she said gently, then began walking away with Amma.

"You've been really quiet, are you okay?" Kai- Yu asked.

"Yeah. I'm fine," Amma answered. Kai- Yu could still tell that he was hiding something, but decided not to try to force Amma to tell her something that she didn't want to.

They walked in silence for a couple seconds, then Amma finally spoke. "Do you know when you're going to see them again?"

"Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Haru? I don't know, I guess not until the next time they visit..."

"Do they all live in the same place? Maybe you could go visit them some time..."

"Well, Aang, Katara, and Sokka all live on Kyoshi Island..."

Amma interrupted her, "And what about Haru?"

"He lives in a small village, I don't really remember what it was called," Kai- Yu answered. She was curious about Amma's sudden interest in her friends, but decided not to ask about it. Not now, at least. "That actually remind me... I'm supposed to go meet Haru soon." _At _our_ place,_ Kai- Yu added happily in her head, but didn't say anything.

They walked back into camp. Kai- Yu said goodbye to Amma, then went to quickly check on Lin, who was still sleeping. After that, she grabbed her glider, and kicked off the ground, flying towards Haru's village.


	13. Chapter 13

Haru was walking through the forest to meet Kai- Yu, when he looked up and saw her fly by on her glider up above the trees. He smiled, then sped up his pace. He made it to the clearing just as Kai- Yu landed. The grass rippled around her feet as they touched the ground. She smiled, then ran up and hugged him. Haru blushed, then wrapped his arms around her.

She pulled away, then looked up at him and her smile widened. "Hey."

"Hey," Haru smiled.

"So... what do you want to do?" she asked.

He laughed. "You know, I hadn't really thought about that."

Kai- Yu brushed against Haru's arm as she walked across the clearing and sat down by the stream. She looked back over at him, and he walked over to sit by her. She put her head on his shoulder.

He rested his head on top of hers. "I'm really sorry," he said gently, "It's not as pretty here in the day time."

She shook her head. "No, it's perfect." She ran her hand through a patch of grass, then spoke again. "You know, I feel like we spent a lot of time talking about me, and half the time I was crying. Tell me about yourself."

He smiled, and laughed a little. "There's really not that much to tell."

"There has to be," she laughed.

He raised his eyebrow. "And just how do you know that?"

"Because people are always more complicated than you think."

"I wouldn't know where to start."

"Well," she began, "Why don't you start with right now? We can go back from here."

He chuckled. "Oh, so you want me to tell you my whole life story? Okay, right now... well, I'm here with you."

She giggled. "Well, obviously."

"I thought you wanted me to do the talking today?" he joked, then continued, "Anyways, I just can't believe all of this is happening right now, it's all so amazing. I mean, this has made everyone, especially Aang, so happy. And I'm jut so glad I went back to the temple with Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Toph the day that we met you."

"So, how did you meet them?" Kai- Yu asked.

"I was practicing my earthbending one day," he started, "While the war was still going on. Katara, Aang and Sokka heard me, and they came to check it out. When I saw them, I ran. The Fire Nation had control of the village, they used our coal mines to fuel their ships. My father and the other earthbenders fought against them, but they were all captured, and taken to prison." He paused for a moment, thinking. Kai- Yu laced her fingers through his, and he took a deep breath then continued talking, "Anyways, Aang, Katara, and Sokka followed me back to my village, and into our shop. My mother let them stay in our barn for the night, since they had nowhere else to stay. I was with Katara, telling her about my father, when we heard a cry for help. We went to see what had happened, and we found an old man trapped in a collapsed mine. Katara convinced me to use my bending to free him. It seemed harmless enough, there was nobody around to see it. The old man turned me in, and the Fire Nation soldiers came to my house and arrested me at midnight that night. When Katara found out, she got herself arrested by pretending to be an earthbender. I don't know how, but Aang, Katara, and Sokka managed to get all of the coal that they were using to fuel the ship up on to the prison deck, and Katara managed to inspire all of the prisoners to rise up against the warden. I owe them so much. Because of them, I was reunited with my father, and we were able to take back control of my village."

There was a long pause, then Kai- Yu finally spoke. "I'm so sorry that all of this happened to you..."

Haru shook his head. "It's all over now, everything's fine." He wished more than anything that it was completely true, but he knew he couldn't tell Kai- Yu about the letter that Aang had received from Zuko, not yet at least.

"So, how did you meet Toph?" she asked.

Haru took a deep breath, then started his second story. "Aang and his friends were planning an invasion on the Fire Nation. It was during a solar eclipse, so they wouldn't be able to use their bending. So they went out and found many of the people that they had met during their travels to help them with the invasion."

"Is that when Aang defeated the firelord?" Kai- Yu asked, her eyes going wide.

Haru smiled and shook his head. "Nope, Aang got to the palace and he was nowhere to be found."

"What happened after that?"

"We couldn't get out in time," he answered, "The eclipse ended, the firebenders got their bending back. There wasn't enough room in Appa's saddle for everybody, and the submarines that we used to get in were destroyed, so the adults stayed and were captured, and the children escaped on Appa and went to hide in the Western Air Temple, until we could come up with a new plan."

"Is that why you guys came back, to visit the place where you were all hiding?"

"Yep."

"Wow..."

"What is it?" Haru asked, curious.

"I don't know," Kai- Yu shook her head, "It's just that... it's such a big coincidence, I mean, the temple that you guys went to hide in is the one that I had been going to visit ever since the war ended."

Haru thought about this for a moment. "Yeah, I guess we all got really lucky..."

They sat in silence for a bit, then Haru spoke again. "So, what about you?"

She looked up at him and smiled. "What about me? I thought we were talking about you today."

He laughed. "Nope, now it's your turn to talk."

Kai- Yu laughed and shook her head. "Fine. What do you want to know?"

Haru thought for a second, then asked, "How did you and Amma become friends?"

She hesitated for a second. "You know, that was a really long time ago, I'm not exactly sure that I remember everything."

"Just tell me what you remember."

She chuckled nervously. "It's kind of embarrassing, really."

He smiled. "You can tell me."

"Promise you won't laugh?"

He kissed the top of her head. "I promise."

She sighed, then began her story, "Well, this one person at my camp used to have a little school- like thing for all the little kids, this was when I was about four or five years old. Anyways, it was nothing major, he would sit on a log or something, and we would all sit around him, and he would tell us stories about the Air Nomads, from before they were wiped out by the Fire Nation."

"But you weren't wiped out," Haru interrupted.

She elbowed him playfully. "Hey, who's story is this?"

Haru laughed. "I thought you didn't want to tell me?"

Kai- Yu looked up at him and smiled, "I thought you wanted to hear it? And now your interrupting me?"

He shook his head, still laughing. "Whatever, just continue."

She giggled, then continued her story. "Anyways, we were all eating lunch while listening to Tashi, he was the storyteller, and then some boy, I don't really remember who, bumped into me, and I spilled my water all over myself."

"Is this the embarrassing part?" Haru asked with laughter in his voice.

Kai- Yu blushed a bit. "Shut up, it was embarrassing for me at the time. And I thought you promised you weren't going to laugh?"

"I just think that it's funny that you thought that is was so embarrassing for you to tell me that."

She shook her head. "Whatever. So, anyways, I ran away and Amma came after me. Since she never really cared what people thought about her, and we were about the same size, she offered to switch clothes with me. And we were just best friends ever since then."

Haru nodded, then looked around and noticed that it was getting dark. "It's getting kind of late..."

Kai- Yu looked up at the sky, then sighed. "I should probably head home."

They both stood up. Haru pulled her into a hug.

"When are we going to see each other again?" she asked quietly, almost whispering in his ear.

"I don't know," he answered, just as quietly, "We should set up a day or a couple days a week when we can see each other."

"We'll meet here," she added, "Every other day. Is that okay with you?"

"That's perfect."

"Then we'll do that." Kai- Yu wrapped her arms around his neck. He put his hands on her waist and kissed her softly.

"I'll see you soon, then," he said when she pulled away.

She smiled. "See you."

Kai- Yu walked away to get her glider, and Haru watched as she kicked off the ground and flew away. He watched her glide through the sky, and when he couldn't see her anymore, he began walking through the forest towards his home.


	14. Chapter 14

Katara was pacing back and forth in her room. She was still deeply disturbed by Zuko's letter, even though they still hadn't found any evidence proving it to be true.

_What if we never see anything,_ Katara thought, _what if it's true, and we never see it coming? Aang would be devastated if the air nomads were wiped out, for real this time!_

Just then Sokka walked into the room. "Katara?"

Katara quickly looked up. "What is it? Is something wrong? Did you find anything? Have you heard from Zuko?" she asked frantically.

"Woah, calm down," Sokka spoke gently, "I was just thinking, we should go talk to Aang, we need to keep our eyes open, and we need to make sure the air nomads' camp is safe, but we can't do that if we never go visit."

Katara calmed down immediately and nodded. "Good point. Okay, let's go."

Aang's house wasn't far, it was just down the road. Katara and Sokka walked in, they didn't need to knock, since they were such close friends with him. Also, they visited him often, so Aang was probably expecting them.

"Aang?" Katara called, "Are you home?"

Aang walked through a doorway on the side of the room and walked over to Katara and Sokka. "Hey, is everything alright? Katara you look upset... please tell me this isn't about-"

"Everything's fine," Sokka interrupted, "But we need to work out how often we're gonna visit the Air Nomads' camp..."

"Oh, yeah... I hadn't thought about that..." Aang thought for a bit, "How about every day? That way we'll be able to know if anything strange is happening."

Sokka shook his head."We don't want to worry them. I would wait until we know for sure that something's up before we start going every day."

"Well, what do you think we should do, Sokka?" Aang asked. Katara noticed that he was starting to look kind of upset, so she put her hand on top of his.

"We'll figure something out Aang, don't worry," she reassured him, even though she still wasn't too sure herself.

Aang smiled. "Thanks."

"I don't think we should have a set pattern," Sokka suggested, "You know, make our visits seem random. But we should definitely plan them ahead of time, just so none of us are surprised."

Katara nodded. "Sounds like a plan. What do you think, Aang?"

"I think it's a good idea," Aang agreed.

Katara suddenly remembered something. "When are we going to tell Haru?"

"Do you really think he's going to want to go back?" Sokka asked.

She smiled. "Oh, I think he would."

Aang looked at Katara, confused. "Why?"

She laughed a little."No reason." _I guess I'm the only one that's figured it out, _she thought.

Sokka shook his head. "Aang, sometimes it's best not to ask."

Aang nodded. "Anyways, maybe we could tell him about it tomorrow, and then go see the Air Nomads if he's willing to. And if Katara's right, he should be." He still sounded a little confused as he spoke.

"Alright, so we'll see you tomorrow?" Sokka said.

"Yeah, see you guys," Aang replied.

Katara and Sokka said goodbye to Aang, then walked home to get some rest.


	15. Chapter 15

Haru's first reaction when he met up with Aang, Katara, and Sokka in the fields was concern,

"Is everything alright? Did you guys see anything?" He didn't hesitate to ask them.

"No, nothing so far," Sokka answered, "But we're going to start visiting the Air Nomads more often, just to make sure they're safe."

"Won't they figure out that something's up?" was his next question.

"We're going to make the visits seem random," Aang told him, "That way, they won't figure it out."

"I don't know... I think we should tell them eventually," Haru suggested.

"We can tell them when we're sure that there are people out to get them," Sokka said, "We don't want to cause a panic."

"But wouldn't it catch them off guard if we waited until then?" Haru protested, "I mean, what if we don't see anything until they decide to attack? We want to give them time to prepare so they can defend themselves."

"He has a point..." Aang agreed.

Sokka shrugged. "It's probably nothing. Besides, Haru, weren't you the one who didn't want to tell them in the first place?"

"I could say the same for you, Sokka, you were the one who wanted to tell them."

"Let's vote on it, like we did the first time," Katara came into the conversation. "Who wants to tell the Air Nomads?"

Haru and Aang raised their hands.

"And who wants to keep it a secret for now?"

Sokka raised his hand. Katara put her hand in the air, also. "I'm going to have to agree with Sokka on this one."

"It's a tie," Aang pointed out, "So what do we do?"

"We come up with a compromise," Sokka answered, "We'll tell Lin or Kai- Yu, and make them promise not to tell anyone else until we're certain that something is up."

"Lin is sick, I don't want to burden her with that," Aang said, looking at the ground, and then up at his friends. "We should tell Kai- Yu."

"I think Haru should tell her," Katara added, giving Haru a knowing smile, "They seem to be really close."

"Great!" Sokka put his hands up, "He can tell her when we visit today!"

"I think I should tell her in private, when the rest of the nomads aren't around," Haru protested quietly.

"And just how are you going to do that?" Sokka challenged.

"Well... I've kind of been meeting up with her..." He tried to fight the heat rushing to his cheeks.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Sokka raised his voice, waving his arms around in the air.

Haru shrunk back. "I didn't think it was important for you guys to know..."

Katara was trying not to laugh. "Aww Sokka, leave him alone. Haru, when's the next time you're going to see Kai- Yu?"

"Tomorrow."

"Okay, so I guess we don't have to go see them today."

"I guess not," Aang agreed with Katara, "See ya later, Haru!"

Aang, Katara, and Sokka said their goodbyes and left. Haru began to walk home, trying to figure out how he would tell Kai- Yu about the news from Zuko.


End file.
